The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre

...the first book of this kind on Indian Theatre...[T]here are few books on Indian theatre but none so authentic, so comprehensive and in this format [which is] simple therefore extremely useful...' - Rajinder Nath, eminent theatre director and founder editor of Theatre India, journal of the National School of Drama 'This encyclopedic volume is the first of its kind in any language, covering all of Indian theatre. It is lavishly illustrated as well, with some rare and historic photographs selected from archival collections.' - Shyamanand Jalan, Ex-Vice Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi 'A signal contribution to Indian theatre studies. This reference work is marked by its comprehensive scope and accuracy of detail. The volume presents a wealth of new information for both students and researchers.' - Kathryn Hansen, Specialist on Parsi threatre and Nautanki, and Professor of Asian Studies, University of Texas at Austin '...an important project.' - Roshan Alkazi,art historian and Director, Art Heritage, Delhi ''Ananda Lal is one of India's leading critics and scholars of performance.' - Richard Schechner, expert on Indian culture and Professor of Performance Studies, New York University The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre is the first reference work embracing both rural and urban modes of Indian theatre spanning its entire history of over 2000 years. This accessible and comprehensive volume consists of 750 entries encompassing forms andpersonalities across India geographically and historically, in twenty-two languages, according to their contribution to the tradition. Splendidly illustrated, it includes around 270 black and white illustrations that complement the entries written by specialists and luminaries of the Indian theatre scene. In keeping with the highest standards of international reference publishing, the eidtor has compiled and edited this material from 63 contributors. The threatre defined here spans not justco n ventional proscenium drama, and devotional and secular rural performing genres, but also musical forms such as Kirtan, dance threatre such as Kathakali, and oral narrative such as Katha Kalakshepam, all of which contain theatre's most fundamental element: acting. The Companion has three broad types of entries: the general, offering a conceptual analysis of a wide canvas on topics such as Cinema, Dance, Martial Arts, Mime, Music, Puppetry, Ritual, an d Theory . The se cond consists of longer overviews according to linguistic regions, for example Punjabi theatre or Marathi threatre. The third category mainly covers brief, factual entries about important individuals, groups, organizations, and movements. The Companion is meant for a general readership across the world, along with all those involved in the field of theatre, as well as researchers and students, for whom detailed bibliographies have been included. Contributors: Param Abichandani Pratibha Agrawal Nissar Alla na C Annamalai Sucharita Apte Lokendra Arambam V Arasu Devajit Bandyopadhyay Hasmukh Baradi Ramdas Bhatkal Kulada Kumar Bhattacharjee Dinkar J Bhojak Zarin Chaudhuri Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry Hemant Kumar Das Sisir Kumar Das Birendranath Datta Sudhanva Deshpande Maneesha Dixit Kalyani Ghose Tejwant Singh Gill Shanta Gokhale Sameera Iyengar Kirti Jain Nemichandra Jain Ramdeo Jha Akshara K V Dr Kamlesh Anuradha Kapur Sunil Kothari P Narayana Kurup Kalamandalam Govindan Kutty Swapan Majumdar Javed Malick Kamalakar Nadkarni Arun Naik Rajeev Naik Basavaraj S Naikar V Pamda Goverdhan Panchal Maya Pandit Jiwan Pani K Ayyappa Paniker Kavalam Narayana Panikkar Anand B Patil Dhirendra Nath Pattanaik K S Narayana Pillai Kironmoy Raha Indra Bahadur Rai Ashish Rajadhyaksha Mukta Rajadhyaksha Purna Chandra Rao Makhanlal Saraf Pabitra Sarkar M Nagabhushana Sarma Shafi Shauq Shubhada Shelke Ranbir Sinh Venkat Swaminathan O L Nagabhushana Swamy Kamalesh Datta Tripathi Ashoke Viswanathan